YO, KIDS!

In a season full of fun, yesterday was one of the most enjoyable days we have at Fort Walla Walla Museum: Explorers Kid Camp. The day-camp is designed to promote hands-on engagement with aspects of the region's heritage, in this case related to Lewis & Clark and the Indian people they met in the mid-Columbia basin.

We had 66 kids enroll this year and it's a situation where 'the more,the merrier' applies ... up to a point. We do have a limited number of spots available, to ensure a small-group atmosphere. After registration first thing in the morning (8:30 am), the kids are divided into seven groups, each assigned an adult 'shepherd' to help make sure kids move to the right station, stay on task, don't poke their neighbors (too much), and so forth.

The activity stations are each led by qualified adults. This year we featured a bow-and-arrow safety activity led by the folks from Walla Walla's Martin Archery and the 'Drilling with the 1800s Military' was conducted by a couple of gents from the local chapter of the Washington National Guard. The other stations are led by elementary school teachers recruited by our Camp Director Marcie Anderson, herself an experienced 3rd grade teacher at Davis Elementary School in College Place.

We work hard at updating the camp each year, so that kids who are interested may participate in new activities throughout the three-year span of the camp's age acceptance (9-11, although we take some 8-year olds whose birthdays will happen soon enough to keep them from being too much younger than the older kids). That age factor isn't simply random. In this part of the world, Washington 4th-graders and Oregon 3rd graders school curriculae require them to learn about regional history. The camps, along with our admission-free school tour program, allows kids a good opportunity to get in touch with the heritage that is rightfully theirs ... whether their families have been here seven generations, or whether they moved to town yesterday.

One down, one to go. We have our Pioneer Kids Camp scheduled for July 21. Organized in like fashion, kids can get hands-on experience in a blacksmith shop, panning for 'gold,' and 'building a log cabin.' At day's end, they receive a certificate of achievement, ice cream, and a chance to meet historical Hudson's Bay Trader William McBean, as portrayed by Rich Monacelli. Kids get the official camp T-shirt, pizza lunch, and plenty of liquids throughout the day to ensure hydration. As with Explorers Camp, we'll have a nurse on the grounds to deal with whatever medical situations arise.

Construction update ... the vapor barrier was being applied as I rolled in this morning. the progress is incredible! I'm told that we'll see drywall in about three weeks.

Today's pics include several from Explorer's Kids Camp and today's vapor barrier installation. The vid is from the 'Drilling with the 1800s military' station. Cheers!

Doin' it for the Kids

Construction continues apace today as the crew puts up the roof deck ... we're going to be indoors pretty soon!

Yesterday I wrote of school kids disembarking at the Museum. We get about 5,000 participants in our admission-free School Tour Program each year and another 2,500 who arrive with parents, grandparents, et al. We conder the Museum to be an adjunct to what goes on in classrooms all across the region, including public, private, and home schools. With some serious generosity from Boise, Inc.'s Wallula Mill, Blue Mountain Community Foundation, J.L. Stubblefield Trust, Bonnie Braden Trust, and the Pacific Power Foundation, we can offer tours of the Museum to schools without cost to them beyond bus drivers and gas. Not bad for your neighborhood non-profit heritage Museum!

Heritage is a shared experience providing a foundation on which to build for the future. By connecting children with their heritage, great things happen. Children gain a sense of place and belonging in their community and in the process their self-esteem grows. Heritage education helps children become fully integrated, productive members of society. Fort Walla Walla Museum supports the educational process and inspires children to learn more about their heritage.

Learning takes place on many levels in the life of a child. Schools perform exceptional work in many areas, but the difficulty of making history come alive for students can be both costly and logistically daunting. A school trip to Fort Walla Walla Museum can be particularly useful in supporting classroom-based assessments (CBA). Children can see and touch aspects of the past that books and lectures cannot address. Utilizing the Museum’s free Teacher’s Guide, teachers may prepare students for a visit and find activities in multiple disciplines for follow-up learning.

Through ongoing surveys of visiting students, the Museum has learned that 86% have never visited a museum before. Further, 82% want to return with their families. Beginning with the new Entrance, a ‘Kid’s Museum’ will be interwoven within the larger Museum. Children who can connect with the region’s past will feel a sense of belonging to their communities, develop healthy self-esteem, and become involved in something greater than themselves. Engaging, interactive, fun, and seamlessly educational hands-on stations children identify by spotting “Maury the Mule,” a friendly, cartoon graphic clad in overalls, red 'long-handles,' and straw hat signaling where children can get involved with the past.

Today's photos show the Museum's 'Maury the Mule' icon, the roof deck being built over the Grand Hall, and our wonderful Docent Vi Jones (left) and teacher Tamar Lundsen with students from Othello's Hiawatha School.

History Comes Alive!

We take history seriously at Fort Walla Walla Museum, but we're also aware that not everyone else wants a lecture on the subject. One of the most interesting and entertaining ways of learning a little about regional heritage is through our Living History program, the first of whose presentations occurs this Sunday at 2:00 pm.

It's important to learn from our past. As philospher George Santayana once wrote, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." The Museum's Living History Company, through its more than 40 weekend presentations through the season, tells the stories of real people in their 'own voice' who helped create the community we have today. I get first nod of the season as I portray Lewis & Clark Expedition member John Colter. Next week, Charles Saranto portrays one of the best stories anywhere as pioneer blacksmith & hotelier Fred Stine.

Through the season, which features performance every Sunday, plus Saturday June through August, you can enjoy Captain Mullan from Mullan Trail fame, Madame Josephine 'Dutch Jo' Wolf, early brewmasters John & Catherine Stahl, Hudson's Bay Company trader William McBean, Suzanne Cayuse Dauphin who was one of the first Indian women to own property in this region, and many, many others. Included in the bunch are special presentations during Ice Cream Social, Women's History Celebration, Frenchtown Rendezvous, and a '19th Century Party' to conclude the season. The season has been described as "a 42-week course in Walla Walla history." Maybe so, but it sure is fun!

Today's photos, top to bottom, include Rich Monacelli as William McBean, Judith Fortney as Suzanne Cayuse Dauphin, Lois Hahn as 'Dutch Jo,' Charles Saranto as Fred Stine, and me, Paul Franzmann as John Colter.

Helping Hand for New Exhibit

Much of import happened while I was away yesterday! Fort Walla Walla Museum plies the grants market several times each year and we were rewarded with an announcement that one of those 'asks' had been acknowledged. It was a national-level grant that will help us move forward with some of the inside, visitor-visible aspects of Phase I construction.

Exhibit Hall I was emptied of all its various and sundry trasures over the winter and will soon be demolished (maybe starting today?). Among the exhibits housed in it was our life-size Lewis & Clark diorama. The scene depicted involved three mannequins representing Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Yellept, a headman of the Wallah Wallah people. They are in the midst of a gift exchange, Cap't. Clark's military saber for Yellept's "eligant white horse," as it was described in the journals. Behind it stood a mural representing Wallula Gap, just south of where the Walla Walla River enters the Columbia. Much of that exhibit was re-displayed in our Headquarters for this season, but we had to bid adieu to the mural.

In the new Entrance building about to arise phoenix-like from the demolished Exhibit Hall I, the diorama will be re-created. We have had preliminary discussion with a local artist of renown and acclaim to produce a new mural with seasonal coloring more appropriate to the actual time frame depicted, as well as a new view of the Gap from the far bank of the Columbia River where stood Yellept's village. As a whole, the scene will be more historically accurate, and colorwise, more pleaseing to the eye. Thanks to the new grant, we shall be able to proceed with the plan.

Stay tuned! Big things are under way!!

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch ...

An off-campus meeting today about diversity training, then a long weekend. The work continues back at Fort Walla Walla Museum, where a new season is just 19 days away. Just yesterday, Operations Manager Don landed our food vendor for the season, no small trick in a shaky economy. Collections Manager Laura continues work on the new Headquarters displays for 2009, Ops Assistant Anne continues to re-stock the Museum Store, and Building & Grounds Manager Jim gears up for the final steps in sprucing up the appearance of the place. Even Tour Coordinator Bill is busy, as we already have a number of school tours booked, a string of Columbia River cruise tours headed our way, and even a pre-season special booking by an auto-enthusiast group from Boise. Bookkeeper Carolyn keeps us on the straight and narrow ... her work has ensured seven consecutive years of finishing 'in the black' (before depreciation).

I sent off a news release to the MSM yesterday about how so much about this season is NEW. New exhibits, new Living History characters, a new building in progress, new food vendor ... it's amazing! There's never been a better year to get involved at Fort Walla Walla Museum!

If you'd like to volunteer, there's lots of great opportunities. Call Don at 509.525.7703 and join the fun!

No blog on Monday, so see y'all Tuesday. -Paul (that's me doing an interview at the Museum with CNNMoney when it named Walla Walla as the best place to retire)

Laura's Sense of Sunshine

Everyone, I think, is pretty happy that the gloomy days of winter are getting to be fewer and farther between. As I look out my office window, the sun is shining even if it is just 20F out there ... even that beats the heck out of dreary gray fog and drizzle.

At Fort Walla Walla Museum, sunshine presents a bit of a problem for Laura, our Collections Manager, however. As we are in a construction season, we will have a number of exhibits in our Headquarters Conference Room this year. The wall of south-facing windows have nice blinds, but even when closed the amount of light that 'leaks' in will cause damage to fragile artifacts. One of the exhibits planned for spring is a selection of our wedding dress collection (pictured), some dating to the mid-1800s. Other textile exhibits will also be displayed in the room this year, including our Annual Heritage Quilt Show in autumn(2008 show pictured).

What to do? When the going gets tough, the tough get busy. This week, Laura and her volunteers ... Esther, Sally, Sis, Helen ... are cutting poster board to fit over the windows. There will also be a drape covering the entire wall, so between the two, sunlight will be effectively blocked. Our mission is to "preserve and share" the heritage of the Walla Walla region. We can't share what we don't preserve, so we take that pretty seriously. "Preserve" means forever, and while current technologies don't let us guarantee that, we do look to get things about 200 years into the future. Our successors can then figure out how to take care of the next several centuiries, so that the fabulous story of the people of the Walla Walla valley can continue to be told for future generations.

Kids at the Museum

We love kids at Fort Walla Walla Museum! We have an admission-free School Tour Program that offers kids, their teachers, and schools an opportunity to walk through the past. Walla Walla wasn't always a sleepy little town at the end of the trail, but was something of a big deal, leading to the long-standing claim of 'Cradle of Northwest History.' The program attracts about, 5,000 participants each year and receives some generous corporate sponsorship from Boise, Inc.'s Wallula Mill, Pacific Power Foundation, and others.

We see lots of other young folks in the course of a year, too. From babies in backpacks, to toddlers in strollers, and schools kids all the way through their high school years, as well as some college students. Some of the latter have been among our most vibrant, active volunteers, putting the lie to "What's the matter with today's kids?" Well, not much in our view ... they are active in the community and already giving back of their own time. That makes us feel pretty good about the long-term prospects of preserving our heritage.

Today's blog is a salute to those wonderful young folks whose energy we envy and direction we try to quietly mentor. There may be problems in the world, but 'our' kids aren't among them. We think kids who make contact with their community's heritage are much better equipped to help make the decisions about a community's future.